Estrategia de eficiencia energética para redes WDM dinámicas/Energy efficiency strategy for dynamic WDM networks

This article proposes and evaluates a novel mechanism for operating dynamic WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) networks, seeking to reduce the energy consumption in the optical layer of the network components, without affecting the network performance in terms of the blocking probability of connections. This mechanism, called Load-Aware Turn On-Off, consists in continuously (hourly) controlling the number of optoelectronic transponders (WDM transmitters/receivers and regenerators) turned on and/or turned off in WDM nodes, depending on changes in both the network traffic load and the maximum blocking probability allowed. The proposal has been tested with the NSFNet (National Science Foundation's Network) and results show that the method can save 15% of the energy consumption regarding the operation of the same NFSNet without the energy efficiency strategy. Simulation results presented in this paper could be of interest to telcos who are currently evaluating the feasibility to implement dynamic WDM networks.